


To Deny Destiny

by VerdantMoth



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Age Regression, Destiny can Suck It, Getting Together, M/M, Reincarnation, Screw Destiny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-16
Updated: 2018-04-16
Packaged: 2019-08-23 14:51:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16621088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VerdantMoth/pseuds/VerdantMoth
Summary: He finds work as a bartender and the boy slides in with a fake ID. He winks when the bouncers let him in, and Merlin kicks him out five times, before he decides he’d rather serve over priced fish to housewives and mistresses. Three days into his shift, the boy gets a job as a cady. He doesn't watch the housewives or the pool boys. He doesn’t speak to Merlin this time, just watches him with eager eyes and hungry hands. Sometimes he corners Merlin and just stands there, watching him. Waiting for Merlin to spill his secrets.





	To Deny Destiny

 

He is old, when the child finds him; Old and withering and grey. Everything about him aches so deeply sometimes he wonders if destiny is worth this. But then a butterfly will land on his shoulder or a toddler might smile up at him, and little sparks of magic shoot through his brittle body.

He knows his king has returned when he wakes and despite the tears in his eyes, the groan in his bones, he is able to get out of bed. He even manages a pot of tea before he is forced into the hot bath.

He doesn’t seek the child out, doesn’t have it in him to travel across the world, or across town. Destiny can fight him if it wants to, but the clouds promise rain and his knees simply cannot handle the pavement. His wrist cannot steer his car.

But slowly, day by day and year by year, his body works to mend centuries of damage. His beard is still grey and his back still stooped, but he walks to the café every morning and he walks to bookstore every evening.

He is curled around a story of fae and unseelie when the boy stumbles into his lap. His eyes are bright and blue, the same shade his mind has never let him forget. The child is still just as impudent, tugging at his beard and demanding his attention.

“Mister read to me!”

He bats the child away, because he is so small and so fragile and Merlin will not let destiny ruin him with crowns and glory. The child is not deterred though; he crawls into Merlin’s lap and stares at him with blue eyes and too many years. So Merlin reads. He tries to tell him stories of space battles and fairies, but the boy wants to know of princes and swords. Merlin tries to impart on him puppies and lions, but the boy has only ears for dragons and questing beast. So Merlin tells him his history, every version of it but the truth.

He sees the child everywhere. In the park, demanding to be pushed on swings. He wants to touch the sky, as if the sky was unreachable before. At the pool begging to be watched as he executes a dive. Water was never so safe, so free to jump into. In the grocery store all sly as he swipes a candy bar. Nothing in his memory was ever so sweet as the sticky, nutty chocolate.

The child rarely recognizes him. Merlin gets younger every day. His body stops aching and he can stand tall and proud with his greying beard and full head of hair. But the boy always finds him, always seeks him out and snatches at Merlin’s cloths with sticky-grabby hands and claims his attention. He never recognizes Merlin, but he always knows him. “Mister, tell me a story!”

Merlin takes up a job in the school, just a librarian. Suddenly the boy is a reader in his own right. He doesn’t want Merlin’s stories anymore, just wants him to “point me towards the history of the Middle Ages, please.” He quits when he can no longer stand the greedy way the boy sucks up stories of dead kings and the boring histories of politics and braces.

He finds work as a bartender and the boy slides in with a fake ID. He winks when the bouncers let him in, and Merlin kicks him out five times, before he decides he’d rather serve over priced fish to housewives and mistresses. Three days into his shift, the boy gets a job as a cady. He doesn't watch the housewives or the pool boys. He doesn’t speak to Merlin this time, just watches him with eager eyes and hungry hands. Sometimes he corners Merlin and just stands there, watching him. Waiting for Merlin to spill his secrets.

For a long time Merlin de-ages quicker than the boy ages. And then he is in his thirties, with laugh lines around his eyes but no grey on his chin. The boy, now a man, celebrates his twenty fifth birthday by driving his car through Merlin’s fence.

“On accident!” He cries, “the rain and the wind.”

Merlin doesn’t care. “Just get out of here!”

“I know you.” The man stands firm. “You’ve been here my whole life.” He smiles a sly little thing. “You look different, though.”

Merlin shakes his head. “You don’t know me.”

The man tilts his head. “No, but I did once.”

Merlin shrugs. “That was a long, long time ago. Go home. Live your life. Enjoy your family and friends, your lovers. Don’t come back here.” He doesn’t say, if you stay, I will break you the way destiny once did.

He is still old, inside this young new body. The man steps forward, invades his space. “You will not break me, Merlin. We were meant to do this together.”

Merlin shakes his head. “Destiny cannot have you again, Arthur. I will not allow it.”

Arthur shrugs, leans in and runs his nose along Merlin’s. “So let’s make our own destiny.”

 


End file.
